XLV and all that

Interrupting my month of 1966 music to congratulate the World Champion Green Bay Packers, who also won the first Super Bowl after the 1966 season. This Super Bowl was better than that one, and probably one of the best Super Bowls ever.



I have ancestral ties to the state of Wisconsin and many relatives that still live there, and they're all lifelong Packer fans, so I'm happy for all of them. I'm finding that it's easier to cheer for Green Bay in the Aaron Rodgers era than it was in the Brett Favre era.

There's supposed to be an NFL lockout next season, so this might be the last football game we see for awhile. I stopped following baseball for four years after the 1994 players strike, and that's a much bigger part of my life than NFL football. Not following professional football would be easy for me, for the rest of my life if it takes that long. If this is the last NFL game I ever watch, at least it was a good one.

España, campeones del mundo!

I watched today's World Cup final at Civic Center plaza with a few thousand friends from both sides of the Netherlands-Spain conflict. I watched the Germany-Spain semifinal at CC Plaza during my lunch hour on Wednesday, and enjoyed the camraderie and companionship of watching a match with a bunch of fellow fans without having to drink beer (something you can't do during the workday!).

Today's crowd was about five times larger than Wednesday's, and there were two large screens set up with Spain supporters on one side and Holland supporters on the other side. They were selling $6 sangrias for the Spanish fans and 6$ Heinekens for the Dutch fans (so much for not drinking beer, but it wasn't a workday!).

I was wearing an orange Barça jersey (Spanish team in Dutch colors) to appear "neutral", and could wander to either side of the plaza as the game went on, plus I actually didn't have a real horse in the game. I just wanted it to be a good game, which it really wasn't, so it was nice to stay busy with people watching and drinking without having to focus too much on the scoreless play.

There are lots of folks in the USA and around the world who only watch soccer every four years during the World Cup final, and I feel sorry for these folks, because final games almost never live up to their billing. They're like Super Bowl games in that other kind of football.

Today's game was 0-0 through regulation time, with Spain controlling possession but neither team making much of a threat, and lots of choppy play. I was pretty sure it would end up going to penalty kicks after a couple of extra periods, which is the I think is the wrong way to determine a world championship of anything. I think it should be play until someone scores, just like they do in hockey, even though that doesn't work as well with 11 players running 100 yards with no substitutions.

Luckily, this one didn't go to kicks because Barça's Andres Iniesta scored a goal in the 117th minute to put Spain on the board, and they held on for the next three minutes to win 1-0 going away. All four of their knockout victories were by the same score (1-0), and I think goalkeeper Iker Casillas was the man of the Cup for only allowing two goals in the entire tournament, but their back line was rock solid as well. After Spain scored (usually late in every game), there was no way they were going to lose.

Congratulations to Spain for a well deserved first ever World Cup title and South Africa for a great Cup. And that German octopus for picking almost every game correctly. I'm feeling sad that it's all over, but I could go a long time without hearing another vuvuzela. Those things were all over the place at Civic Center plaza today!

Close our eyes to the octopus ride

My World Cup picks weren't that great (I picked Brazil vs. Argentina in the final, and Spain and the Netherlands to be eliminated in the quarterfinals), and now I'm torn because the parakeet picked Holland while the octopus picked Spain.



I'm siding with Paul the octopus because Syd Barrett never wrote a song about a parakeet. Viva España!

Semifinal #2 (Viva España!)

After 62 games, the matchup for the third place game in the 2010 World Cup this Saturday is now set, and it's Uruguay vs. Germany. This means that the final is Netherlands vs. Spain, an interesting clash between the two best countries who've never won a World Cup.

Either Spain or Holland will win their first World Cup on Sunday, which will cause joy and pandemonium in one of these countries. I'm not sure who to cheer for, because they're both teams that I respect and admire. I'll be happy for whoever wins on Sunday, but mostly sad that the World Cup is over.

Semifinal #1 (Dutch delight!)

My month of Tommy Keene will start next week after the World Cup is over. His career compilation comes out on 7/13, and he's only made eight albums in 30 years, so it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to go over Tommy's entire career. On to the Cup!



The Netherlands are the first finalist in the 2010 World Cup after beating Uruguay 3-2. Their opponent will be determined tomorrow when Germany plays Spain, but either way it will be an all-European final. I was expecting an all-South American final -- a similar result with a different continent.

As a Barca fan, I never liked Arjen Robben or Wesley Sneijder at Real Madrid, but they play well together and are fun to watch. Right now I'm pulling for a Spain-Holland final that will give some team their first World Cup ever.

Bottom 28

Now that the World Cup Semifinals are set, here are the FIFA tournament rankings for the 28 teams that didn't make it.

5. Argentina
6. Brazil
7. Ghana
8. Paraguay
9. Japan
10. Chile
11. Portugal
12. USA
13. England
14. Mexico
15. South Korea
16. Slovakia
17. Ivory Coast
18. Slovenia
19. Switzerland
20. South Africa
21. Australia
22. New Zealand
23. Serbia
24. Denmark
25. Greece
26. Italy
27. Nigeria
28. France
29. Honduras
30. Algeria
31. Cameroon
32. North Korea

This just ranks the tournament performances without taking any pre-tournament rankings into account, but if you rank the teams by most impressive to most disappointing, the bottom three would be England, Italy, and France. Semifinals kick off tomorrow for the other four!

WC Days 20-21 (on to the Final 4!)

After 20 days and 62 games, here are the matchups for the World Cup semifinals.

Germany vs. Spain
Netherlands vs. Uruguay

Brazil and Argentina, my two picks for the finals, were eliminated yesterday and today, which changed the outlook from a possible all-South American final to a probable all-European one. The only South American team remaining is Uruguay, the one that no one probably picked to go this far.

The semifinal between Spain and Germany is a rematch of the 2008 Euro Final, and I'm hoping for Spain to pull it out again. An all European final between Spain and Holland would be a good one to watch. The semis are this week (Tue and Wed) and the finals are next Sunday.

Days 18-19 (final eight, take a break!)

The final eight in the 2010 World Cup are now set and my picks were 60% correct.

Argentina,Brazil,Germany,Spain,Netherlands England,Nigeria,Cameroon

My hopes for an African team in the quarterfinals came about, but it wasn't one of the two that I picked. It was Ghana (losing to England, who should have won Group C). I did not pick four South American teams (the two guays in addition to the big two) to make up half of the final eight.

Unfortunately, I also picked England to enter the semifinals, but the other three teams I chose (Argentina, Brazil, and Spain) are still poised to make it. And 75% is pretty good picking!

Here are the Quarterfinal matchups..

Fri 7/2::
Netherlands vs. Brazil
Uruguay vs. Ghana

Sat 7/3::
Argentina vs. Germany
Paraguay vs. Spain

Each day has one A game and one B game, with the winner of the A game probably going through to the finals. And the chances of an all (South) American final are looking possible with a team from the continent in each game.

Strange that the games are Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday, but the important part is that the next two days (Wednesday and Thursday) will be Cup free, which is a big adjustment after 19 straight days of two or more games! The whole World Cup will be wrapped up a week from Sunday, and I'll need to find another blog theme for July to find something else to write about here (not that anyone actually reads this stuff!).

Days 16-17 (down go USA, England, and Mexico!)

The USA was eliminated from the World Cup yesterday in a 2-1 loss to Ghana in extra time. It was a disappointing result, but not unexpected given our rank in world soccer. The USA are ranked 14th, equating to losing in the round of 16, which is what we did. It was a nice run, and everything nice needs to come to an end sooner or later.

After we were eliminated from the tournament, my main hope was that there wouldn't be any bragging rights by our neighbor to the South (Mexico) or our colonial forefathers in England. Luckily, both England and Mexico were eliminated today to put all three teams out in the round of 16. So nobody's better than anyone else!

Half of the round of 8 are now complete, with Uruguay, Ghana, Germany, and Argentina punching their tickets to the World Cup quarterfinals. The Argentina-Germany match next Saturday should be a good one, and the chances of a non-European team in the finals grow greater by the day. Should be a slow ride to the finals..

Day 15 (Let the knockouts begin!)

The elimination stage of the 2010 World Cup is now set, and the USA are in an unbelievably fortunate group where we should be the favorites to make the semis. Here's the round of 16..

Sat 6/26:
Uruguay vs. South Korea
USA vs. Ghana

Sun 6/27:
Germany vs. England
Argentina vs. Mexico

Mon 6/28
Netherlands vs. Slovakia
Brazil vs. Chile

Tue 6/29
Paraguay vs. Japan
Spain vs. Portugal

One of the U.S., South Korea, Uruguay, and Ghana will reach the semifinals, and the USA are the highest ranked team in the group. If we make it through, we'll be huge underdogs against whoever. My final four are the USA, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina, with Brazil and Argentina meeeting in the finals.

Oh yeah, I picked all four teams in Groups G and H (Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Chile) giving me a .625 selection average (11/16). My final four are the same with the USA replacing England (who I thought would win the group), and I stand by my selections for the finals.

Hoping to see more of this tomorrow!

Day 14 (Arrivederci, Azzurri!)

Down goes Italy!



My main hopes for Group F were for Italy to not make it to the knockout stage and New Zealand to not be completely shut out, and both of these hopes happened in reality today, after Italy lost 3-2 to Slovakia and New Zealand tied 0-0 with Paraguay. Paraguay ended up topping the group with five points and Slovakia were second with four, followed by New Zealand with three (3 ties = undefeated baby!) and the Italians drawing up the rear with two. I picked Paraguay and Italy, so I ended up 50% right, but very happy to have picked Italy incorrectly. Both finalists from the last World Cup are going home, which hopefully means a better final this time.

In Group E, the Netherlands and Japan both won (over Cameroon and Denmark) to make it to the elimination stage going away. I picked the Netherlands and ... Cameroon, who ended up losing every match, but it's another 1/2 right pick. Now the Dutch play Slovakia and Japan plays Paraguay in two E/F matchups that nobody picked correctly.

Tomorrow (Day 15) brings the final group games for Groups G and H. Brazil and Portugal play a meaningless game with both teams pretty much clinched (the Ivory Coast has to beat North Korea by nine or more goals to make it interesting) in G, while Group H breaks down to a three way battle between Switzerland, Spain, and Chile with the upper hand while Honduras plays its last match before going home.

We could end up with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and the USA all topping their groups. Let's hear it for the dancingest hemisphere of them all -- the Western Hemisphere!!

Day 13 (foam finger time!)

At the end of regular time in today's USA-Algeria match, it looked like the American World Cup run would be coming to an end. They were tied 0-0 after England had already beaten Slovenia. But then this happened (in the 91st minute).



Notice how long it took for the score to change on the TV. There'd already been one disallowed goal for the USA (a BS offside call against Clint Dempsey), so I was waiting for this one to be called off. After this goal, the Americans were on top of Group C, and heading to the second round against the runner up in Group D.

After this match, Germany defeated Ghana to win Group D, which means that they'll play England on Saturday and the USA will play Ghana. Our boys should have their hands full against Ghana (who beat US 2-1 in the 2006 World Cup), but they're not as tough as Germany, who we cannot beat under any circumstances. They should have no problem with England.

In my Cup picks, I picked England and USA in Group C and Germany and Serbia in Group D, which equates to three of four teams correct. Tomorrow brings the final games in Groups E and F, two groups I don't have a strong feeling for, other than hoping for Italy to go home. My Cameroon pick didn't really pan out, so it's looking like there will be no African teams in the Final 16 (ETA: besides Ghana, of course!)

Day 12

The "playoff run" started today in World Cup 2010 with the final games in Groups A and B. Both group games are played at the simultaneously to teams won't have an unfair advantage, and at the start of play, all four teams were still alive in both groups.



My picks for Group A were France and Mexico, which ended up half right. I didn't think France had a very strong team, but still thought they'd be able to advance, but the French melted down in spectacular fashion, scoring just one goal and ending up at the bottom of the group.

South Africa beat France today, but also failed to make it, the first time ever that a host nation hasn't made it to the knockout stage. The two representatives from Group A are Uruguay and Mexico. Hooray for the Americas (North and South)!

In group B, I picked Argentina and Nigeria, which was also half correct. Argentina won all three games and easily won the group. I stand by my pick for the Argies to make the finals and win, then getting Oasis to reform to play their victory celebration in Buenos Aires. Messi and Tevez are both big fans, and Maradona might be too. The Gallagher brothers are big in South America!

The other representative from Group B is South Korea, who meet up with Uruguay in the round of 16. The other A-B matchup between Argentina and Mexico is a rematch of 2006 where Argentina won 2-1 in extra time on a great goal by Maxi Rodriguez.



Gooal!! There are no ties in the elimination round -- they play until there's a winner, even if they need to go to penalty kicks.

Tomorrow is the final games in Groups C and D, which is the England-USA group and the Germany group. The Americans advance with a win or tie against Algeria. Go America!! (United States of)

Days 9 - 10

I always think of this video whenever I watch Italy play



Danielle De Rossi's acting job against New Zealand today to sell a penalty kick was one of the most blatant dives I've ever seen, and the resulting PK goal prevented the Kiwis from the upset of the century. The 1-1 draw is still a huge result for the Kiwis and a huge embarrassment for the Azzurri. If it wasn't for France and England, they'd be the biggest disappointment in the tournament.

On the other side of the draw, South American teams have been awesome, with no losses and all five CONMEBOL teams set up to advance to the knockout stage. Paraguay and Brazil both won today, which added to earlier wins by Chile and Argentina to make South America the strongest continent in the World Cup. African teams haven't been quite as successful, with only one win (by Ghana) and a possible shutout from the final 16.

But New Zealand has to be the surprise success of the tournament, with two ties in two games including one against Italy today. No matter what happens in the final game, the All Whites have shown that they belong on the international stage.

Day Eight

Michael Bradley got his dad a nice tie for Father's Day, but it should have been a win because we wuz robbed a few minutes later on this play.



In the other games from day 8, Serbia surprised Germany 1-0 and England and Algeria played to a 0-0 draw that wasn't nearly as exciting as that score line indicates. This means that the USA advances with a win over Algeria next Friday or a tie and an Algeria win or tie. Which means four of the six possible outcomes for the two games.

Days 6-7

The first week of the 2010 World Cup is now complete, and every team has now played its first game. It looked like most teams were tentative in their first games, playing defensively and trying not to lose instead of moving the ball forward, which resulted in five draws in the 16 first round games (and very few goals).

Everything has picked up in days 6-7 when teams started playing their second games and knowing what they needed to do to advance. Today there were ten goals in the three games, which resulted in no tie games and two goals or more for the winning side in every game.

Right now this looks to be a World Cup for the Americas, with Argentina clinching the second round and Mexico and Uruguay looking pretty comfortable in group A. The only team from North or South America who has lost is Honduras, who lost to Chile.

Tomorrow the USA plays Slovenia to keep the American(*) fortunes flowing. Viva Western Hemisphere!! Mas que nada!


(*) "American" meaning everything from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego..

Day Five

One of my fall back positions for sporting events where I don't have a rooting interest is to cheer for the underdog. This usually works well in the World Cup where some plucky third world nation tries to hold their own against a mighty opponent, but there are exceptions.

Today's match between North Korea and Brazil was one of those exceptions. The DPRK is a totalitarian state led by a despot, so no matter how much I try to separate the sports from the politics, I can't bring myself to pull for their World Cup team.

Any success by the North Koreans in this tournament validates their fearless leader, so cheering for North Korea is essentially cheering against freedom. Even their "fans" (pictured above) are Chinese actors paid to support the team in the World Cup.

The forces of anti-freedom held the Brazilians in check through the first half today, with an uber-defensive style that featured a pyramid of six players in front of the goal, each guarding one square meter with his life, for fear of ending up in a work camp. The Brazilians eventually broke the pyramid and scored a goal, and then another one, but it was an impressive showing for a North Korean team that didn't belong on the same field as their opponents.

The other worst team in the world cup is New Zealand, who scored a goal at the end of stoppage time to salvage a draw against Slovakia. The entire game was unmemorable up to that point, but this one strike made it all worthwhile.



Winston Reid got a yellow card for taking off his shirt, but I'm sure he doesn't mind after getting New Zealand's first point ever in the World Cup. All Whites!!

Day Two

The Match of the Century ended up as a draw, just like the War of 1812, but just like that war, the tie was mostly caused by English screw-ups. I ended up watching the match at a local establishment, since I decided that I needed fellow fans (and beer) to make it through 90 minutes of USA vs. England.

After Gerrard's breakaway goal in the fifth minute (1-0 Engerlald) , it looked like the USA hadn't bothered to show up, and would be a long day for our boys in red, white, and blue, Then after Rob Green fumbled Clint Dempsey's strike in the 40th minute (1-1 tie!), I figured it would be another long afternoon, since it was going to be one of those games.

England is a really boring team to watch when they're trying to protect a lead, but they're even more boring when they're trying to break one. The entire second half was like a Johnny Horton song, where we fired our long balls but the British kept a' comin', firing long balls of their own. Kick, kick, kick, kick, with no sustained posessions. There were chances for both teams in the second half, but they were both playing to tie, so a tie was the most logical ending for both teams.

This means absolutely nothing in the short term, since both the USA and England should advance to the knockouts from a weak group, but it the long term it means that neither team is very strong against top-flight competition. But after a second place in the Confederations Cup, and draws in the World Cup against Italy and England, it's time for the rest of the world to stop making jokes about "American Soccer".

In the earlier games, South Korea beat Greece 2-0 and Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0. I forgot that Korea is fun to watch, since they attack constantly and don't play defense. This will probably hurt them against Argentina, but it wasn't much problem against the Greeks. And Argentina has a loaded team (Messi, Higuain, Tevez, Milito, etal) who should never lose a game, but they don't really play together that well. They should have scored 4 or 5 goals against Nigeria, but didn't because the chemistry was off, and the Nigerian goalkeeper was stopping everything!

Three games tomorrow: Algeria vs. Slovenia, Ghana vs. Serbia, and Australia vs. Germany. I don't have much interest in these matchups (other than go Socceroos!), so I might take the blogging day off unless something interesting happens.

Kicking off day one

The World Cup kicked off today with two draws in Group A, South Africa vs. Mexico (1-1) and Uruguay vs. France (0-0).



Fans in South Africa were fired up for the first game, screaming and blowing vuvuzelas for all 90 minutes. The game started at 6am, but I watched it time-shifted a bit later at a more normal hour. They don't break for commercials in soccer, but skipping the pregame and halftime means watching a game in 90 minutes instead of two hours, and those half hours saved add up over time. It was nice to see ESPN using international broadcasters instead of American novices for this Cup, and even nicer that they mixed the commentary high enough above all the vuvuzela humming.

The USA and Mexico have an intense CONCACAF rivalry, so American fans are required to cheer against Mexico, which made it easier for me to pick a side in this match -- South Africa all the way! They held their own for most of the game, and even took a lead early in the 50th minute before conceding a Mexican equalizer from Rafa Marquez in the 70th minute.

Even though I cheer against Mexico, Rafa is a (now former) Barcelona player, and I was glad to see one of my guys get a goal. Made me wish I was watching live so I could switch to Univision to hear the 30 second "Gooooool!" call whenever Mexico scores.



The South Africans were the underdogs, so holding Mexico to a tie was a great result for them and a setback for the Mexicans. The second game between France and Uruguay was also a matchup between a favorite and a determined underdog. When we were studying South America in sixth grade, I was assigned Uruguay (or "you're a gay" as my classmates pronounced it) as my country. This is my only connection to Uruguay, but 34 years later, I still know that its population is three million, its chief exports are soccer (two World Cup wins) and grain, and its capital is Montevideo, which is namechecked in this song by the Monochrome Set.



Because of my sixth grade assignment, I was pulling for Uruguay against France. They held the French pretty well, but didn't move the ball at all, especially when they were down to ten men. It was a pretty dull game until the last ten minutes, and it ended in a scoreless draw. There might be football purists who like the tactics of a defensive struggle, but there is nothing more boring than a 0-0 soccer game. It's a shame that these always happen in the World Cup final when the world is watching.

Three games tomorrow: South Korea vs. Greece, Argentina vs. Nigeria, and the USA vs. England. The last one should be the most watched soccer game in US history, surpassing the 20 million who watched the 2006 Cup Final. Hopefully this will shut up idiots like Glenn Beck who say "Americans don't like soccer".

My Cup Picks

Now that I've gone through all the groups, here are my picks for the 2010 World Cup. The draws are based on who finishes first and second in each group, with A1 vs B2 and C1 vs D2, etc., so it's possible to be way off.

I tried to pick "paint" (favorites) as much as possible in the groups, then went with my gut, ending up with two African teams (Nigeria and Cameroon) in the final 8, and two South American teams in the finals, which probably won't actually happen. Luckily I'm not betting any real money on this.

Final 16
Group A: France, Mexico
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria
Group C: England, USA
Group D: Germany, Serbia
Group E: Netherlands, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay
Group G: Brazil, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Chile

Final 8
Argentina,Brazil,Germany,England,Netherlands,Nigeria,Cameroon,Spain

Final 4
Argentina, England, Brazil, Spain

Final
Argentina vs. Brazil

Champion
Brazil

The Cup kicks off tomorrow, and SBNation has the 2010 World Cup Likability Index for clueless Americans still wondering who to cheer on.